Anticipating Our Resurrection Pt.2 2-15-2020

HEAVEN - SEEING THE UNSEEN ANTICIPATING OUR RESURRECTION Pt.2 Sunday February 16, 2020 Scripture Reference: Romans 8:18-25 Intro. Our scripture text for today is found ion Romans 8:15-25. "18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)" Romans 8:18-25 (NLT) A. Last week we were talking about our final resurrection. The resurrection of these bodies we now have. Once again, I will emphasis that this discussion is important because of what Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 15 and here is what he said. "16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins." 1 Corinthians 15:16-17 (NLT) This doctrine of the resurrection is not some trivial or sideline issue. It is a central truth in our belief as followers of Christ. It is like the third leg of a three-legged stool. If one leg is taken off the whole stool falls over. Paul very clearly tells us that if the resurrection of our bodies is not true then the whole of our Christian faith is false, and we are a doomed people. I would say that makes this discussion very significant. 1. Last week I spent most of my time talking about the resurrection of these bodies but today I want to focus more on the New Earth we will inhabit with these resurrected bodies. You may remember if you were here a few weeks ago that I spoke extensively about the New earth. I said that the earth will be both New and Old. It will be new in that the curse of sin has been removed and things will seem new to us because we will see this world as we never saw it before, but it will also be old in that there will be much of this world that we still recognize and relate to. God is not going to destroy this world and start all over again as some people have thought. If that were the case, we would not need to be talking about resurrection because destroying and starting over has nothing to do with resurrection. You don't resurrect something that never was. I really want to emphasis that God is and has always been in the business of redeeming and restoring. We see it in the story of the flood, and we see it in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God didn't say the world was very bad He said it was very good. Trans. Now in V.22 of Romans 8 it says that creation is waiting for the resurrection so here is the first question I want us to consider today. I. WHY DOES ALL CREATION AWAIT THE RESURRECTION? As we get started today I want to issue a warning I have given you several times already and that is that I am probably going to present some ideas to you today that are new, but once again my challenge is that we look at these things in light of what the Bible says not what we have come to believe or want to believe. That fact is: A. We Need To Broaden Our View Of Redemption. 1. Consider this, since we are created in the imagine of God and unlike the rest of creation we have immortal souls and have the capacity to make moral judgments, this means that we are the only ones who are in need of salvation, but consider this as well, all creation needs redemption. To understand this, we need to understand what redemption means. We have gotten use to this now but every one of us pays an additional $.05 CRV on all the beverage cans and bottles we buy. The CRV stands for California Redemption Value. The purpose is to redeem these bottles and cans and restore them to their original purpose. Instead of letting them be destroyed or discarded in our landfills they can be redeemed and restored to their intended purpose. Once again when we think of our resurrection and the resurrection of this earth, we do not see God destroying or discarding what He made but instead we see Him restoring and redeeming this wonderful world He created and said was Very Good. 2. Now we know that mountains and oceans do not have conscious minds. The mountains and oceans do not think about what they are going to do they just are, but God said that they along with us will experience redemption. They too will be restored to what God intended. To think that this world is just too messed up by sin for God to redeem is to say that God didn't make something that was Very Good. The breath of God's redemption plan goes beyond just you and I. Listen to what the Bible says, this was part of what Paul was saying as he spoke of the Deity of Jesus. "Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe-people and things, animals and atoms-get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross." Colossians 1:20 (MSG) Paul tells us in Romans 8 that: B. All Creation Awaits The Resurrection. 1. Don't raise your hands but I wonder if any of you were like me and you wondered what in the world Paul meant when he wrote these words? These verses have always been a puzzle to me until I began studying about Heaven. First, I would remind us that these words according to the Bible were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so they were not words Paul came up with on his own after a sleepless night. God gave these words to Paul to give to us. So, let me share with you what I believe Paul was telling us in these words. 2. Let's go back to the beginning in Genesis 1:28 "Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground." Genesis 1:28 (NLT) God gave man authority to rule over all of creation. Now we do not have a detailed description of Eden, but I think we can safely assume that before the fall things were working pretty well. I don't think Adam and Eve suffered through any droughts, or floods or earthquakes or any of the things we know about in the world today. The earth was truly paradise and that is why we look forward to getting back there. But then came sin and a curse fell over all the earth. In a very real way paradise was lost. Now the Bible tells us that this same creation awaits the resurrection, Why? It is because mankind and this world, this creation are inseparably linked together. We need to understand that as mankind goes so goes creation. As all creation was spoiled by our sin so will all creation be restored by our resurrection. 3. Now here is something that has really helped me in understanding these verses. The sin of Adam and Eve was not something that just affected you and me. The truth is their sin had catastrophic effects for the entire universe. The second law of thermodynamics is entropy which means that all things are deteriorating. I know it does sound very positive, but the reality is at this point in time we are born to die. It is not something we can avoid, although it seems sometimes that we try pretty hard to do so. **Here is what I really want to you get. This law of thermodynamics reveals to us the huge extent of the curse of sin on this world. It should be little wonder to us that all of creation groans for resurrection. As I have noted several times. C. The Old Is New Not Gone. 1. It is my opinion that most Christians hold to the belief that there will be no carry over into Heaven. What I mean by that is that I think many of us people that things like, working, art, culture, sports and other aspects of this earthly life will be gone forever in Heaven. I said a few weeks ago that my belief for a long time had been that our memories would be wiped clean like a computer's hard drive and we would be starting over from scratch. 2. Now if this were true then what kind of language would we expect to hear from the Bible? How would Paul have worded Romans 8 if this were the case? He might have talked about a man dying, gasping for his last breath on earth, but this is not what Paul describes. Look at V.22 "For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." Romans 8:22 (NLT) Paul uses the language of childbirth. I have never had a baby, but I think there are a few ladies here today who can testify that giving birth has a lot of pain and suffering that goes along with it, but these are temporary. The end result is the miracle of new life that brings us immeasurable joy (at least until they become teenagers). What Paul is helping us to see here is that with all the suffering and strife of this world a new world is coming. A world that will bring us joys that can't even compare to those of a new baby. Trans. I want to finish this discussion with one more question. II. HOW FAR REACHING IS THE RESURRECTION? Jesus became a man and lived on this earth to redeem mankind. His victory occurred on earth and the culmination of his victory will also occur on earth where he set up his eternal kingdom. We were created from the earth to live on the earth. Our hope is not deliverance "from" these bodies but rather it is "into" our new bodies into a new world where we will live forever with Jesus. The fact is there is only one unearthly destination talked about in the Bible and that place is Hell, but according to what Jesus taught in the story of Lazarus and the rich man even those in hell have a physical presence. A few weeks ago, we talked about the judgment of our works, of the things we do down here on earth. According to the Bible there will be a resurrection of our deeds. B. The Resurrection Of Our Deeds. 1. Let's go back to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15. "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NLT) Remember this whole chapter is dealing with our resurrection. Paul tells us that in light of the fact that we will be resurrected we need to give ourselves enthusiastically to the Lord's work. Now this is not a big or small church issue, but every pastor knows how difficult it is to find volunteers to do the work that needs to be done and I might suggest that the reason this is so at least in part (but in my mind a BIG part) is that we are not being very Heavenly minded. We are not thinking about the fact that what we do now for God follows us to Heaven. Remember what Jesus said? "19 "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT) I am not just talking about you, but I know that I have more treasures stored here than I do in Heaven. A man named Bruce Milne said this, "Every kingdom work, whether publicly performed or privately endeavored, partakes of the kingdom's imperishable character. Every honest intention, every stumbling word of witness, every resistance of temptation, every motion of repentance, every gesture of concern, every routine engagement, every motion of worship, every struggle towards obedience, every mumbled prayer, everything, literally, which flows out of our faith-relationship with the Ever-Living One, will find its place in the ever-living heavenly order which will dawn at his coming." While we need to be careful that we are really giving our lives for things that matter I think we also need to be aware that we will discover in Heaven that a lot of things we felt we did that were worthless actually had eternal impact. Listen to what Heaven is saying, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!" Revelation 14:13 (NLT) I want to add a note here about this verse. It says that we will rest from our hard work. That does not mean we will be in retirement in Heaven. It doesn't mean we will no longer have things to do in Heaven. The wonderful thing that it does mean is that we will not know the burden and difficulty we know about work today. If there is no such a thing as Monday in Heaven it will not be a day to dread, but a day to rejoice and celebrate what we get to go out and do for our Lord. Trans. Now I want to finish this message by talking about something I referred to in my last message. I want us to take just a few minutes to talk about the importance of our language about Heaven. C. The Importance Of Our Language About Heaven. 1. How many times have we said or heard things like this? "Don't forget to tell that person you love them because it may be your last chance to do so." Or "Be sure to give the person you love a hug before you leave the house because you may not get to ever hug them again." Well these words are true, but they are only half true and as believers we do not deal in half-truths, right? These statements would only be true if that person was not a follower of Christ. Then if they died before we saw them again, they would be gone forever, but if they are followers of Christ then our real hope is that we will see each other again and we will never be separated again. 2. Now you might be thinking, "Well that is really just splitting hairs" but I would disagree. The way we speak reveals the way we think. Here is what Jesus said "A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart." Luke 6:45 (NLT) We don't just say what we believe we end up believing what we say so our language is very important. 3. I have found myself catching myself on several occasions using wrong words to describe Heaven. I want, and I hope you do to, to be able to communicate effectively about Heaven so that we can help people want to be there and to look forward to it greatly. This is what I want to be able to tell people. This of course is predicated on the fact that they are following Jesus. I want to tell them "If you forgot to kiss that person one last time on earth you will one day give them a kiss in Heaven that will be like no kiss they have gotten before. If you forgot to give them that one last huge then the day is coming when you will huge them as you never have before. Consider this as well. Remember all those flaws that person had? Remember how they frustrated and upset you at times. Remember how as a parent we want to say to them "I bought you into this world and can just as easily take you out"? Well in Heaven all these flaws and frustrations with our personalities are gone. Conclusion A. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 "51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed." 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (NLT) Can I ask what might seem to be an obvious question, "Are you anxious for the resurrection?" 1. [] I remember when I was a teenager one time, I arrived at church for a youth service a little early. Our youth room was upstairs, and I was starting to walk up the stairs when I heard the voices or the pastor's son and a guy who would later be the best man in my wedding. I stopped hallway up the stairs to hear what they were talking about (I know it wasn't nice to do but hey I was a kid). It turns out they were talking about end time prophecies. I remember them talking about how some of these things were coming to pass and that it seemed like it might not be long before Jesus returned. I vividly remember feeling panic and fear and I felt this way because I knew I was not ready for Jesus to return. I was not ready to hear that final trumpet sound. 2. For some of you and I hope many for you all this talk about the resurrection and return of Jesus Christ makes you feel excited and anxious for him to come, but for some of you it might bring the same panic and fear that I felt that night. The great news is that you can eliminate that fear and panic right here and right now. All you have to do is ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, to come into your heart and begin following him from this day forward. I would like to help you take that step today is you wish. 8